


Leaf Season

by SonriaCat



Series: Tales from Winter Camp [4]
Category: Earth 2 (TV 1994)
Genre: 100 situations, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2019-02-16 20:40:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13061745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonriaCat/pseuds/SonriaCat
Summary: Eben keeps a secret.





	Leaf Season

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Autumn

Closing her eyes, she lifted her face to bask in the warm sunlight. “Leaf season,” her mother might have said on days like this. It’d be cold again later, but right now she gave in to the impulse to open her jacket. Seasons were one of the things she’d missed after she’d gotten up to the Stations, and autumn had been her favorite.

A rustling sound came from her right, followed by a sound of dismay. “Oh, no! I didn’t mean to do that!” True was frantically gathering up dry leaves and examining the tree branch. “I only brushed up against it. I didn’t mean to kill it!”

“It’s okay,” she answered. “The tree’s fine. It’s just fall.”

True stared. “There’s nothing wrong?”

“Nope,” she answered. “The leaves change colors and fall off when the trees are getting ready for winter. If you hadn’t brushed against the branch, the wind probably would have knocked them off later.”

“Oh.” She examined a leaf. “Why’s it all yellow?”

“It’s dried up. I don’t know exactly why. You can ask Yale the next time you have class.”

True made a face. “How’d you learn that? I thought you lived in the Quads like the rest of us.”

Caught, Eben couldn’t think of an answer that couldn’t give her away, so she tried a diversion. “Have you found any more of those berries? Devon and your dad wanted us back before dark.”

True showed her a full basket. “I knocked the leaves off ’cause I was getting a last few from under the tree.”

“All right. Let’s start back.”

“Really, Eben, how’d you know about the trees?”

The girl was entirely too sharp for her own good. “I just heard it around. Come on, let’s go.”

“Are you an Earth-res or something? That’s it. You are, aren’t you? Why haven’t you said anything?”

The child was entirely too perceptive, as well.

Sighing, Eben bent down so that they were mostly eye-level. “You know how people talk about Earth residents on the Stations.”

“But things are different here. Bess’ being an Earth-res is _helpful_. You probably would be, too.”

“It’s complicated, True. Nobody knows because nobody ever asked, and I’d rather keep it that way. Okay?”

“Oh,” she answered. “I get it. Mazatl doesn’t know.”

Eben closed her eyes. She should have known better than to think nobody would notice the two of them.

“I won’t tell him.” True picked up the basket and started walking. “But I really don’t think anyone would talk like that about you here. Nobody talks about Bess, and Morgan doesn’t seem to mind when she mentions it.”

She looked after True’s departing form, wondering whether she should explain that Morgan’s influence had always saved Bess from the worst of the treatment. And they hadn’t lived in the Quads. It was different there.

A gust of cold air blew up, making her shiver. Zipping up her jacket, Eben suddenly wished things could be as simple as True believed.

#

Walman stopped cold after going through the tent flap. His entrance hadn’t been quiet, and an exit wouldn’t be either. Rather than making more noise by leaving, he settled for an intense study of the tent poles.

“It’s all right.”

He blew out his breath and looked toward the cot. Eben was lying on it, eyes closed, body utterly still. A blanket and some extra tent material lay on the ground at the foot of the cot, but Mazatl was kneeling next to it. He wiped the last of the dirt and sweat from her face before dropping the cloth into a bowl and looking up.

“I, ah, I came to tell you that Zero finished digging.”

“Yes. We need to wrap her up.”

“Julia’s still willing to help —”

“No. That’s fine.”

“Maz, it’s not like you have any obligation. You broke up, what, a month ago?”

“A little longer.” He stroked the side of her face. “But it wasn’t bitter.” Her skittish nature simply hadn’t been compatible with his taciturn one. “She was a good woman, a fine person.”

Fumbling with his hands, Walman moved to the foot of the cot. “Yeah. She didn’t deserve to die like that.”

“She didn’t deserve to die at all, especially not on a planet.”

“Especially not on a planet?”

Mazatl straightened Eben’s shirt and folded her arms across her chest. “She hated the idea of being buried in the dirt. I never understood why until a couple of weeks ago. True asked me if we ended it because she was an Earth-res.”

Walman blinked. “I didn’t know Eben was an Earth-res.”

“Neither did I. I’m not sure how True found out, but she looked guilty when I told her I hadn’t known.”

“It explains a lot, though,” said Walman. “Unusual things she knew, the way she and Bess got to be friends.”

Bess had also wanted to be here, but she could still barely stand. Now that Eben was gone, she was the worst off, which, he realized, made sense. Their shared childhood exposures to toxins and economic hardship probably had created additional weaknesses in their immune systems.

Mazatl picked up the blanket, and started wrapping Eben up. Blinking again, he moved to help, supporting and turning the body as gently and respectfully as possible. “I’m surprised she kept it a secret.”

“I’m not. She was adamant about going back to the Stations.”

“Even though she liked it here sometimes?”

“Everyone likes it here sometimes. Not everyone likes it enough to think about staying.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“I just wish,” said Mazatl softly, “that keeping the secret had turned out to be worth it.”

Outside, they could hear the others moving toward the headland, voices subdued, gathering for the funeral. Walman opened the tent flap, secured it back, and then bent to help pick up Eben’s body. In the sunlight, the yellow outer wrapping rustled and crackled, sounding just like autumn leaves.


End file.
